Aleksandar Nikolov led Lube Civitanova to an impressive 3:1 (25:23, 25:23, 22:25, 25:22) victory over visiting champions Trentino in two hours minus one minute of play in a packed "Eurosuole Forum". The triumph happened in front of his father - the legend Vladimir Nikolov.
The top scorer from the last World Championship in the Philippines finished with 29 points (1 block, 4 aces), and it was his ace that ended the match. In reception, Nikolov recorded an impressive 80% positive and 40% perfect reception, while in attack he erred only once out of 41 attempts and registered 59% on this element.
Eric Loeppky added 14 points and Mattia Bottolo 12 for the victory, which, however, did not come easily at all.
After taking a 2:0 lead in sets, the visitors reacted like champions and reduced the lead of the team from the Marche region. The fourth set also went better for the team from Northern Italy, but Nikolov and company managed to equalize after an ace by the Bulgarian for 15:15, a block by D'Heer for 20:20, and again Nikolov, who is now called “flagello dei Balcani” (The Scourge of/from the Balkans), made it 22:21.
Belgian middle blocker Wout D'Heer gave the lead through the center for 23:22, which forced Trentino's coach Marcelo Mendez to call a timeout. After that, Nikolov stepped to the service line, who troubled Trentino's reception, and a block by D'Heer against French national Théo Faure brought the first match point.
Another serve by Nikolov followed, converted into an ace, which secured the final 25:22 and brought the second victory for the winner of the Italian Cup for the 2025/26 season. Thus, with 7 points, Lube are third in the temporary standings behind Perugia and Modena.
For the visitors, Alessandro Michieletto finished with the most points - 22, and Théo Faure added another 14, but even these were not enough for a victory.
33 points from Trentino's errors went to the hosts' tally, who made 26 such errors. In blocking, the advantage was on Lube's side (6:4), and in serving, the advantage was minimal, as Nikolov's last ace gave the lead in this element (8:7).
photos: legavolley.it and screenshot
